Graduate profiles
Meet the Class of 2024
Harvard College
Ananda Birungi
Ugandan immigrant Ananda Birungi’s passion for advocacy bloomed in high school and earned her a citizenship medal from Colorado’s governor.
Dora will next pursue a Ph.D. at MIT in algebraic combinatorics, a branch of mathematics that applies methods found in abstract algebra to discrete counting problems.
Aaron dove into the world of medieval medicine with his thesis, “Holiness to Wholeness: Restoring Medieval Surgery to its Religious Cultural Context.”
Harvard Business School
Davida Bynum
As a dual-degree candidate studying business and government, Davida is exploring the best ways to serve the public and private sectors.
Eduardo Avalos
With a focus on social entrepreneurship, Eduardo is hoping to create more equitable opportunities for those with fewer resources and less access.
Claudia Hill
By combining a degree in biomedical engineering with an M.B.A., Claudia plans to change millions of lives by creating life-saving drugs that can be distributed equitably.
Harvard Divinity School
The growth I’ve experienced at HDS, both personal and academic, has been beyond anything I expected.”
Jude says his time at HDS changed his perspective about other faith traditions. After graduation, he will work as a private attorney and also run his non-profit, Keep Hope Alive Nigeria.
While studying at HDS, Christopher’s favorite class was “Trends in World Christianity, 1900-2050,” which explored shifts in Christian confessions around the globe from a historical and social scientific perspective.
Harvard Extension School
Tomas Hernandez
Extension School graduate Tomas was able to complete his Master of Liberal Arts in Finance degree while working a full-time job, being a dad to three children, and pursuing his love of karate.
Vivien Kocsis
For her Master of Liberal Arts in Data Science capstone project, Vivien had a very specific sponsor in mind: NASA.
Brian Mazmanian
Of his journey at Harvard Extension School, Brian said, “I can honestly say that I’ve loved every minute of it.”
Harvard Graduate School of Design
For the first time, I truly felt like I was doing work that was very in touch with what GSD wants people to do, which is working with communities.”Priyanka Pillai
Master in Design Engineering
A joint Graduate School of Design and John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences program
Daniella Slowik
Through her interest in landscape architecture, Daniella pursued projects that combined agro-ecology, food production, and water infrastructure to help vulnerable communities deal with climate change.
Curry J. Hackett
While pursuing a degree in urban design, Curry explored everything from water infrastructure to how enslaved people may have made paper.
Harvard Graduate School of Education
Saif Kamal
A series of life-threatening medical problems changed Saif Kamal—but his desire to pursue opportunity never wavered, and now he wants to help others find their opportunity.
Alria and Vyankatesh Kharage
Alria and Vyankatesh met as undergraduates, fell in love, and began building a life together when their shared passion for education brought them to Harvard.
Moriah Lit
Moriah has turned her own struggles with sobriety and recovery into an opportunity to help others seeking higher education opportunities.
Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
During his internship at SpaceX, Ben talked to experts to help him finalize his design for a robotic hand to help astronauts perform tasks remotely without the fatigue imposed by a suit glove.
While pursuing a master’s degree in data science, Maria always kept her focus on the responsibility and impact that technology can have on society.
Whether on the Charles River as a skipper on the Harvard Crimson sailing team or on the ocean helping to decipher sperm whale communications, Lachlain was never too far from his love for water and engineering.
Harvard Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Thomas Lee
Thomas found a way to identify otherwise unrecorded 20th-century hurricanes, laying the foundation for a new field of historical environmental seismology.
Dylan Renaud
Dylan’s Harvard Horizons project combines research in the emerging field of nanoscale photonics—how light interacts with very small objects—with practical computing applications to create novel devices that move information via light.
Juhee Kang
Juhee Kang, who studied history and East Asian languages and civilizations, explored how psychological testing and mass data collection evolved in 20th-century Japan, where they became central across society.
Harvard Kennedy School
While pursuing a Master in Public Policy, Ananya learned how to turn a political campaign into an art form.
After founding a platform that provides safe pharmaceuticals in Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda, Adebayo decided to pursue a mid-career master’s degree to help him understand how to expand to even more countries.
For her capstone research project, Maya sought to understand and find solutions for the inequality in Boston’s core city services, which aren’t equitably distributed across its diverse neighborhoods and communities.
Harvard Law School
Nicholas Gonzalez
Nicholas was instantly smitten with the law when he took part in mock trial and moot court competitions in high school. The performative part of arguing a case felt both familiar and alluring.
Hayley Isenberg
For Hayley, playing basketball and pursuing a law degree have one very important thing in common: the importance of teamwork.
Phoebe Kotlikoff
After becoming one of the first female U.S. Navy submariners, Phoebe was inspired by the integration of submarine service and the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” to attend law school.
Harvard Medical School
David Velasquez
The first of his family to go to college, David was not satisfied with a single Harvard degree, or even two—he took a break between his third and fourth years at Harvard Medical School to earn a master’s degree in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School and one in business administration from Harvard Business School.
Personal experience with cancer in her family cemented Deborah’s determination to pursue a career that combines her passions for analysis and improving patient care.
There are only a handful of residency positions in dermatology for the U.S. military each year. There was only one spot in the Navy open to graduating medical students, and Mitchell was selected to fill it.
It was an online search for “science internships, Boston” that set Irene on a 10-year path to Harvard where she would ultimately complete a Ph.D. in biological and biomedical sciences.
Harvard School of Dental Medicine
Sheridan Danquah
Growing up, Sheridan didn’t encounter a dentist until after moving from Ghana to the U.S. when he was 10. The experience made a profound impression on him and influenced him to enter the field.
Jessica Latimer
Jessica turned a passion for doodling into a side job creating scientific illustrations that have landed in well-known medical and dental journals across the country.
Layra Valdes
As president of the Hispanic Student Dental Association—an organization committed to improving oral for Hispanic and other underserved communities—Layra is making dental care approachable and accessible.
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
I heard of people who had given birth during their incarceration, and I was really shocked.”Bethany Kotlar, who studied the impact of maternal incarceration during pregnancy and after birth on child development
Irfan Chaudhuri
Watching his grandmother battle Alzheimer’s disease inspired Irfan to explore the role public health could play in Alzheimer’s prevention.
Ivan Hsiao
After navigating the roadblocks involved in gender-affirming care, Ivan founded the startup Trans Health HQ to decrease barriers for clinicians and patients.
James Frater
As a child with asthma, James saw the dangers that come from inadequate health care. That’s why he decided to gain the skills to understand health systems and improve health equity across the globe.